Empress Of - When I'm With Him

Lorely Rodríguez gives a new turn to her sound for her latest single, When I'm With Him, exchanging the edgy synths for a breezy indie pop, more in tune with what Sky Ferreira or Haim have been doing. This change is not unexpected whatsoever, it is quite similar to Best to You, her collaboration with Blood Orange (aka Dev Hynes), one of the most prominent indie pop producers of the last few years, that is partly responsible of the sound of Ferreira, Haim, and many other alternative pop musicians like Solange and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Hynes' influence is very palpable in the new version of Rodríguez music, much more relaxed and warm, but as strong and powerful as her previous album, Me. If one was guessing just from the title and the music vibes of When I'm With Him, one would mistakenly think this is a love song about how good is for her to spend time with her significant-other, the spaciousness of the funky guitars and rhytmic drums, and her next-door girl vocals suggests a perfect sunset in the arms of a loving partner. In contrast, Rodríguez goes bilingual in pondering how her relationship is stuck in a dark place where she founds no pleasure and she has to pretend to be in love because the feeling doesn't come natural anymore.

Rodríguez questions "Tell me where I'm going? Tell me where I went?" in Spanish, trying to find out what is it that went wrong. It's more nostalgia than drama, it's routine rather than abuse what is suffocating the relationship, if we get the idea of a sunset from the music, it's more to reflect the dying affection. There are subtle nuances on her voice and in the tone of the song that give away the internal turmoil that is hidden behind the apparent lethargy.

What Rodríguez, Haynes and all their friends are doing is redefining the idea of "Californian pop", rather than the surf rock played by withe boys, but chill pop made by latin, black and white women and men. It's not only the diversity on the background of the singers, here's less urgency but more thoughtfulness in it, more space. When I'm With Him is not overly complicated, but not overly simplified, there's a good balance in the importance of lyrics and music to create a pop hit, but some inventiveness to take it to the next level, and a personal imprint of Empress Of own identity through her mixing of English and Spanish.